Church congregation swaps homes for Clark U.

A pair of real estate transactions caught my eye this week, and I figured there was a good story behind them.

The first listing involved the church at 949 Main St., directly across the street from Clark University. Clark purchased the building from the Spanish Church of God in July for $750,000.

The Spanish Church of God then turned around and purchased the former Perlman Funeral Home building at 1026 Main St. for $400,000.

Hector De Ycaza is the pastor of the Iglesia de Dios (Church of God) in Worcester. He and his congregation held their final service in their longtime home at 949 Main St. last Sunday and are furiously renovating the former Jewish funeral home so they can hold their first service in their new building. They planned to have that service today.

"I told our congregation that if the Lord wanted it for us, he would open up the doors," said Pastor Hector this week, as he sat behind a desk in the middle of what was once a sitting room in the funeral parlor.

The former funeral home has several garage bays, an expansive basement, a large chapel and a second-floor apartment that will house the pastor, his wife and their family. The property was apparently a hot commodity, with a number of small churches interested in buying it.

"When we asked about it, there was another church that had made an offer," Pastor Hector said. "But then we received a call that the building was available again, and we made an offer." He said several other religious leaders were still expressing interest in the building, even as Iglesia de Dios was making its offer.

The church's congregation, which has about 60 members and regularly has 80 to 100 people attend its Sunday services, had been faced with about $120,000 worth of repairs to the old church at 949 Main St. A wall was buckling, the roof had problems, etc.

"We did not even have 10 percent of that," he said.

Built in 1886 as a Baptist church, the building at 949 Main St. had been owned by Iglesia de Dios since 1980. But it has almost no parking and with the expensive repairs looming, the congregation could not remain, he said.

The building that Pastor Hector first wanted to buy was the vacant Pentecostal church on Blackstone River Road in Quinsigamond Village. But that church, with room for 400 to 600 worshippers, was just too big.

He had heard that Clark University had previously expressed interest in the Spanish Church of God building and was leasing some parking space from St. Peter Parish, the Catholic church a few doors down Main Street from the college.

One day, Pastor Hector received a business card from Jack Foley, vice president for government and community affairs at Clark University. As it turns out, Mr. Foley wanted to talk to Pastor Hector about how Clark could become more active in the neighborhood.

The meeting that ensued brought together Mr. Foley, the bishop for the parish that includes Iglesia de Dios, and Pastor Hector. At the end of that meeting, the pastor asked, "Would Clark be interested in buying the church?"

Turns out, they were, and they did.

I asked a Clark spokeswoman what the university plans to do with the 949 Main St. church building, but she would only confirm that the university had purchased it. Nothing more.

As part of the purchase and sale with Iglesia de Dios, Pastor Hector said, Clark University specifically requested that church pews and the pulpit remain in the building.

That is an unusual request. It makes me think that Clark is not demolishing the building. I speculate, based on that tidbit of information, that the university want to keep the building and perhaps convert it into classroom space, or even a chapel.

Back at the former Perlman Funeral Home, Pastor Hector said his congregation has plenty of room to expand. The chapel can hold 326 people, while the church's former home held 250.

"Filling up our chapel will be a major, major challenge," he said. "God is involved in all of this."

We walked through the chapel, and he showed me some of the changes they had made to the pulpit, the lighting, and such. I can tell you that 326 people would have trouble fitting in the space, but that 100 would fit comfortably.

"They used to celebrate death here," he said to me, "but now, we celebrate life. Our God is the God of the living."